Institute for Hospital Management, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
Health Soc Care Community. 2022 Nov;30(6):e5673-e5684. doi: 10.1111/hsc.13995. Epub 2022 Sep 8.
The role of formal volunteering in mental health promotion among older adults in China has been widely discussed during recent decades. However, the relationship connecting mental health with cross-level interaction (i.e., average levels of participation in the community vs. individual participation) is still unclear. This paper examined the effects of cross-level formal volunteering on depressive symptoms among older adults living in China. Using two waves of the China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey, a sample of 3128 Chinese older adults was surveyed in 2014 and 2016. Depressive symptoms were measured using the abbreviated CES-D-9. Individual fixed-effects ordinary least squares regression models assessed the associations between individual- and community-level formal volunteering and depressive symptoms in urban and rural areas separately. We found that in the urban sample, formal volunteering activities were negatively associated with depressive symptoms at the individual level (β = -0.49, SE = 0.22, p < 0.05). Higher community-level formal volunteering was positively associated with depressive symptoms (β = 2.82, SE = 1.42, p < 0.05). When adding interactions between individual and community levels, engagement in individual-level formal volunteering was associated with lower rates of depressive symptoms as community volunteering participation levels increased (β = -3.07, SE = 1.07, p < 0.01). High community-level volunteering participation was detrimental for non-volunteers. In rural areas, neither community- nor individual-level formal volunteering was associated with changes in depressive symptoms. The current findings demonstrate formal volunteering may not always benefit mental health for all. The effects may depend on the community context and individual choices. Social policies aimed to promote mental health through formal volunteering need to be tailored according to the specific community social environment.
正式志愿服务在中国促进老年人心理健康方面的作用在近几十年来得到了广泛讨论。然而，心理健康与跨层次交互（即社区参与的平均水平与个体参与）之间的关系仍不清楚。本文探讨了跨层次正式志愿服务对生活在中国的老年人抑郁症状的影响。本研究使用了两次中国纵向老龄化社会调查的数据，对 2014 年和 2016 年的 3128 名中国老年人进行了调查。抑郁症状采用 CES-D-9 量表进行测量。个体固定效应普通最小二乘法回归模型分别评估了城乡地区个体和社区层面正式志愿服务与抑郁症状之间的关系。我们发现，在城市样本中，正式志愿服务活动与个体层面的抑郁症状呈负相关（β=-0.49，SE=0.22，p<0.05）。较高的社区层面正式志愿服务与抑郁症状呈正相关（β=2.82，SE=1.42，p<0.05）。当加入个体和社区层面的交互作用时，随着社区志愿服务参与水平的提高，个体层面的正式志愿服务参与与较低的抑郁症状发生率相关（β=-3.07，SE=1.07，p<0.01）。较高的社区层面志愿服务参与对非志愿者不利。在农村地区，社区和个体层面的正式志愿服务都与抑郁症状的变化无关。本研究结果表明，正式志愿服务并不总是对所有人的心理健康都有益。其效果可能取决于社区环境和个人选择。旨在通过正式志愿服务促进心理健康的社会政策需要根据特定的社区社会环境进行调整。
